Scott's WeblogThe weblog of an IT pro focusing on cloud computing, Kubernetes, Linux, containers, and networking

Technology Short Take 97

Welcome to Technology Short Take 97! This Tech Short Take marks the end of an era (sort of); it’s the last Tech Short Take published while I’m a VMware employee (today is my last day; see here for more details). But enough about me—let’s talk some tech! This Short Take may be a bit longer than some, so buckle up.

I’ve long said that if you’re going to use Docker, you need to exercise caution about blindly throwing some container on the “FROM” line of your Dockerfile. If you don’t know how that image was built, this is no different than downloading a compiled executable from the Internet and running it. (Good luck with that.) In any case, this is something that Tern is intended to help address.

Cloud Computing/Cloud Management

William Lam has a series of posts on VMware Pivotal Container Service (PKS), which at the time of this writing was up to 4 posts in the series. William provides an overview in part 1, discusses client tools in part 2, reviews NSX-T integration in part 3, and actually kicks off the PKS installation with Ops Manager and BOSH in part 4.

If I ever get my hands on a Windows 10 box (I’m seriously considering adding a Windows 10 box to my home office setup), I’m going to try this process. Hmmm…maybe I could install Windows 10 on my quad-proc Mac Pro, then run macOS virtualized on it…that might be something to try one day (as if I’ll ever have time for that!).

Ansible 2.5 was recently released; check out this post detailing some of the new features and functionality.

Dusty Mabe talks about using BTRFS snapshots to snapshot and rollback entire installations of Fedora, and (rightfully) mentions Atomic Workstation as a (probably) better alternative. Still, the idea is pretty cool.

Storage

No links for you this time, but I’ll stay alert for something to include next time. If you have links you’d like to see included in the next Technology Short Take, send them my way!

Virtualization

Nothing this time around—it seems like all the “cool kids” are talking about cloud, containers, and Kubernetes these days! Don’t worry, though, I’ll keep my eyes peeled for some content to include here next time around.

Career/Soft Skills

Finding yourself procrastinating more than usual recently? There can be a lot of different reasons; this post by Leo Babauta explores some reasons and some antidotes for procrastination.

Guess I should’ve read this post by Greg Ferro on why you will never make serious money working for a startup before I took a job at a startup. (Oops! That’s a hint toward Monday’s announcement!)